MR2 gets some more maintenance...

So yesterday was a write off. Went to cut off the bolts and change my front track rod ends and found the angle grinder had thrown the death sparks. So in an effort to progress things, i set about cracking all the suspension bolts to ready for the poly bush instal. Couldnt find my wreckers bar for love nor money, and Camaro progress was going even worse, so the towel was thrown.

So today i hit it with full blown enthusiasm. Without going into the Camaro, the first point of contact was chopping the old track rods off. I should point out that i picked up a pair of front track rods as i was planning on making up a set of rear tie bars, but the TB group buy came along so i had them sitting around. Waste not want not! Typically thoughit was eBay strikes again, and once i chopped the old ones off i found that the MK1 rod ends i bought were nothing like the ones i needed. Bumsticks. I managed to catch a thread on the old one but it was barely a couple of turns.. Not drivable. And as usual nowhere in the central belt of Scotland keeps these parts in stock, so the MR wont be moving till tomorrow.

As i was stranded at the garage all day anyway, i made a crack at installing the poly bushes. Surprisingly the suspension came apart quite easily! Especially these control arm bits:

...which i reckoned may be my own personal brand of hell. Getting the lower arm bushes out was my own brand of hell though. I *tried* being all smart and engineery about it, doing something like this:

...and firing 12 tons of force against the bush....

...but all i managed to do was force my 3" wrecker bar into a shape resembling an over-ripe banana. Time for the more traditional method:

FFFIIIIIRRRREEEEEEE!!!!!!!!

BUUUURRRRRNNNNNN!!!!!!!!!

 
Fitted! Well, it was a bit more involved than that. Nonetheless, thats the full front of the MR2 polybushed. Just a proper set of track rod ends to fit and i can see if this makes a difference!!!

MR2 gets some maintenance...

Been a bit ill recently. Had a nasty ear infection that has been keeping me out the garage. Today was the first day i could leave the house without the need for copious painkillers. Spent a couple of hours on the MR2 hunting niggles, as i didnt have the guts to look at the Camaro, knowing it would inevitably swallow my whole day!!

First up i re-greased the new rear tiebars and gave them a check over. They seem to be holding up well, and the rosejoints still tight after a hundred miles on Glasgows horrendous roads.

Only other noteworthy thing outside of bolt torquing and fluid checking was starting on the poly-bush installation. Nice simple one... rear ARBs.

 
Heavily greased, threads and all. Noticable difference? None.

Camaro and others... Real progress!

The past week has been quite an active one. The only problem for the garage is that it hasnt been a busy one for the Camaro.

I finally manned up and made a good positive bit of progress on my brothers VW Polo project a few days ago. It has been languishing with a half completed 1.4 Efi conversion for months now.. A project that truly snowballed into a clusterfuck. A few days of daydreaming and brainstorming left me with the conclusion that if the 1.4 block was identical to the removed 1.0, then all of the associated 1.0 equipment should fiit and run. In that case, why not just run a carb?

A mornings tinkering with a few elements removed (entire EFi loom, injection manifold and electronic ignition) and even fewer added (carb setup, vac advance dizzy) and we had it spluttering to life with cold start. Just to set up the carb and instal a carb fuel pump. I'll take my timing gun down next week and get some pictures too...

Anyway... about the Camaro now. So I made a resolution to myself. Camaro must be running (if not road legal) by the end of March. Got enough time off now to realistically achieve this, so today I hit the with a vengeance. First up, rectify the problem with the existing HT leads. I picked up a set of Procomp 10mm race leads for a song, and set about crimping them up accordingly:

You can see the difference so easily in the picture. Proper beefy leads... Methodical change over too you'll note!

Looking a lot more "street" now...

All done. Next up I started to torque up the finger-tightened manifolds. This is where it all went wrong. N/S bank tightened up fine, but the O/S wouldnt quite go. An hour of shuffling about later and I got to the bottom of it. The collector seems to be fouling the lower subframe. Far from impressed, it looks like they may have warped or something. Worse than that, I cannot rectify the problem in place, and due to the size of the manifold, that means pulling the whole fecking engine out again. I got as far pulling one side of the engine up with the crane just to see if they would slip up past the block.

They don't.

OK, so after a weekend my mojo was sufficiently topped up. Nothing for it, the engine had to come back out!

Dropped the prop, gearbox mount and as little engine mount and connections as possible, and got it out from the side:

A big slice, bend and weld later, and it *seemed* to look better when bolted up.

Time to take off, wrap and refit completely.

My only gripe is it seems to sit a bit close to the starter motor now. To be honest, its gonna sit close to everything, I just need to suck it and see. If the motor fails I can get a smaller unit to replace it with anyway...

Now its fitted up it looks a lot better, here I have all the ignition gear on, and bolts torqued. Just need to wrap those middle primaries up and cable tie them.

Sadly the wrap on the N/S took a pounding during the refit and now looks a bit tatty. Feckin typical. At least its bolted tight. 

Ignition all set and timed, although this picture does heehaw to show that:

Back to where we should have been! Now for some gearbox oil:

I used the thickest treacle-like MT90 I could find. Took 25 minutes for it to goop down that hose. Also took about 4 litres of the stuff! That Getrag is a beefy one!

Now the manifolds are sitting correctly, I could throw the centre system of the exhaust on. Picked up 6 old bean bolts today and got them onto the manifolds, along with the rear boxes attached. A wee jack on the axle got it as high as it normally sits on the road, so I could gauge how low I could get away with hanging them...

Once that was established I secured it up with a ratchet strap around the panhard rod:

...and started welding! One length of 6mm steel rod to the back of the box:

and another formed and welded to the rear chassis leg: (bad picture angle)

...resulting in one side hung. Add generic exhaust rubber for best results.

repeat on other side...

...and the exhaust is suspended! Need a bit more strength on the N/S hanger, and it could be straighter, but it looks decent enough:

 Got the heater matrix pipes trimmed and fitted. 2 jub clips short of them being done...

Got the fuel pump refitted and the lines terminated on it...

Another big step! Got the coolant system plumbed in. Not checked for watertightness as i'm out of antifreeze...

...and got the lambda ports welded up on the exhausts. No need for that shite here!

Knew i'd find a use for those old merc wheel bolts!

That leaves me with literally the 3 electrical components (dizzy, alternator and starter) to wire up, and shes running!!